25+ Eye-Opening Esports Statistics In 2023 – Tournaments, Organizations, Players, Viewers Details

Barry Elad

Updated · Sep 14, 2023

25+ Eye-Opening Esports Statistics In 2023 – Tournaments, Organizations, Players, Viewers Details

25+ Esports Statistics That Will Blow Your Mind

Esports Statistics: Did you know that Esports has been around since 1972? In addition, Esports is an exciting industry that has steadily increased in prominence over time.

These Esports Statistics in 2023 will prove its growth. We will also provide other Esports facts that you will find helpful.

These answers will become apparent as you read the following paragraphs that contain fascinating stats on Esports. We have already published video gaming statistics in our previous post.

Interesting Esports Statistics (Editor’s Choice)

  • Dota 2’stotal prize pool for 2023 was almost $40 million.
  • By the end of 2025 and 2027, the number of e-sports players is going to increase by 650 million and 720.8 million respectively around the world.
  • E-sports market revenue share is going to reach $3.96 billion in 2023 and by the end of 2027, the revenue share of the market is going to be $5.43 billion.
  • The highest-earning Esports player has earned more than$7.18 million by NOtail in 2023.
  • As of 2023, the Esports industry’s entire market value surpassed $ 3.96 billion in revenue.
  • Team Spirit, the highest-earning Esports team, has won nearly $ 540 million in prize money.
  • Across the world, the United States Esports market is worth over$1,076 million, making it the largest share by 2023 also termed as the largest Esports market.
  • The user penetration of the e-sports market in 2023 resulted in 7.5% and by 2027 it is expected to be 9.1%.
  • The combined value of the top four Esports organizations is more than $250 million.
  • The global market of e-sports by 2030 is expected to be $6.802 billion with a 21.11% CAGR.

Esports Market Growth Statistics

#1. Esports Market Revenue Statistics

(Source: statista.com)

Sponsorship and advertising in the United States are the main sources of Esports revenue.

  • According to 2023 collected data, sponsorships around the world’s e-sports market generated nearly $8737.3 million. This was the single-largest revenue-generating segment in this industry.
  • Furthermore, revenue earned by other segments of the e-sports market is followed by Media Rights ($207.8 million), Publisher Fees ($130.7 million), Merchandise and Tickets ($107.9 million), Digital ($53.9 million), and Streaming ($46.3 million).
  • As of 2023, the highest e-sports market share is experienced by China resulting in $360.1 million in revenue which is followed by other regions are USA ($243 million), and Western Europe ($205.8 million).

Statistics by E-sports player

(Source: statista.com)

  • By 12th September 2023, the leading e-sports player across the world with $7.18 million which was earned by NOtail.
  • Furthermore, other leading e-sports players earning statistics are followed by JerAx ($6.49 million), and ($6.49 million), Ceb ($5.87 million), Topson ($5.7 million), KuroKy ($5.29 million), Miposhka ($5.26 million), Yatoro ($5.03 million), Collapse ($5.03 million), and Mira ($5.02 million).

Market share statistics by country and territories

  • Across the world, the United States Esports market is going to be $1,076 million, making it the largest share by 2023.
  • Whereas, other countries e-sports revenue shares are followed by Argentina ($24.63 million), Australia ($116.20 million), Austria ($24.70 million), Belgium ($34.30 million), Brazil ($89.60 million), Canada ($121.80 million), Chile ($5.99 million), China ($445.20 million), Colombia ($21.45 million), Denmark ($28.31 million), Dominica Republic ($1,933K), Egypt ($4.21 million), Finland ($17.94 million), France ($150.40 million), Germany ($268.60 million), Greece ($16.25 million), India ($107.80 million), Indonesia ($9.73 million), Ireland ($22.35 million), Israel ($7.18 million), Italy ($94.64 million), Japan ($141.80 million), Kenya ($6.98 million), Lithuania ($7.33 million), Malaysia ($5.31 million), Mexico ($67.59 million), Netherlands ($42.37 million), New Zealand ($14.56 million), Norway ($27.98 million), Philippines ($22.17 million), Russia ($39.60 million), Saudi Arabia ($8.62 million), Singapore ($8 million), South Africa ($23.41 million), Spain ($118.30 million), Switzerland ($30.04 million), Thailand ($19.68 million), Turkey ($10.95 million), United Kingdom ($202.30 million), and Vietnam ($5.78 million).

#2. Sponsorships in Esports generate more than $600 million in market revenues.

In 2021, Esports sponsorships were anticipated to account for $641 million in revenue. This segment contributes approximately 60% of total Esports revenue.

Media rights are expected to generate around $192.6 million in revenue in the Esports industry.

esports-estimated-market-revenue-by-segment-1.png

Below is a complete breakdown of Esports’ projected market revenue by segment:

#3. The Esports industry is worth over $1 billion.

  • Esports has gained popularity over the past few years. Esports’ market value has increased in tandem.
  • The worldwide Esports market was worth $3.96 billion in 2023. It is expected that between the years 2023 to 2027, the revenue of this sector will grow by 8.21% of CARG.
  • This growth in the Esports industry is taking place despite a slight pandemic-induced decline to $947.1 million.
  • The esports market is expected to be worth around $1.62 billion by 2024.

Regional Esports Statistics

#4. The United States is estimated to hold the largest Esports market share by 2023.

According to projections, the United States will have a 28.7% share of the Esports market in 2023.

This is 6.9% more than the market share predicted for China (21.8%) in 2023.

With an 18.2% market share, South Korea is ranked third in the Esports market share forecast.

#5. China is the world’s largest Esports market.

The United States of America Esports Market is valued at more than $2.34 billion across the world’s regional Esports markets in 2023.

The China E-sports industry is valued at approximately $445.20 million. It is the second-biggest regional Esports market.

Esports Games Statistics

#6. The overall prize pool for Fortnite is more than $60 million.

Dota 2 is a multi-player action RTS game ever made and there’s always a new strategy or tactic to discover and the prize pools reached nearly $24, 579,398 as of 30th July 2023. The number of viewers in the game resulted in 5.9 million.

The prize pool of Free Fire games has turned $1,624,977 by August 2023 and the number of viewers resulted in 1.71 million basically playing on mobile.

Furthermore, the prize pool of other e-sports mobile games is followed by Arena of Valor ($2,141,731), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive ($13,278,414), and PUBG Mobile ($10,786,825).

As of 2023, the PC / Console e-sports games prize pool are followed by League of Legends ($5,234,462), Valorant ($6,680,864), Apex Legends ($5,394,670), Rocket League ($7,341,346), Street Fighter ($1,906,912), Call of Duty ($5,048,702), Fortnite ($8,884,100), and Tekken ($1,229,870)

#7. More than 4 million people watch Just Chatting on Twitch.

Just Chatting was streamed by approximately 4.3 million Twitch users between March 2021 & March 2022.

This number is more than twice as much as the second most-watched game, League of Legends (1.9 million).

#8. Elden Ring is Twitch’s most-streamed game.

There are some similarities between the top games on Twitch with the highest prize pools and those that are most streamed. Both top 10 lists include League of Legends, VALORANT, Fortnite, and Call of Duty: Warzone.

Elden Ring, which had 20 million streams by July 2023, was the most streamed video game.
8 games received more than 2 million views on Twitch in this time frame.

#9. Counter-Strike Global Offensive held the biggest cumulative prize pool for 2021.

Dota 2 had the largest cumulative Esports prize pool for 2021. The total prize pool for the online battle forum was $47.76 million last year.

In Esports contests, shooters dominated cumulative prize pools, accounting for 6 out of the top 10 falling within this category.

Top 5 e-sports tournaments by prize pool in the year 2023:

(Source: escharts.com)

#10. In a year, the prize pool for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds tournaments is estimated to exceed $25 million.

PUBG (the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds) tournament is predicted to increase annually between 2017 and 2023.

The entire prize pool for the PUBG video game in 2023 was $3 million.

The cumulative prize pool of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds for Esports climbed to $8.19 million, an increase of over 8x in a single year.

The total prize pool for PUBG Esports competitions is estimated to reach $27.53 million by 2023. That’s a 300% increase in just five years.

#11. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive video game was streamed to 44.6 million users in June 2023.

Around 8-9 million individuals streamed the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive video game in its heyday in 2020.

In 2020, the game attracted nearly 273,000 viewers. Although this number was inflated partly by the COVID-19 pandemic, it remained stable for the following year.

The average number of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Esports viewers fell to 224,000 in 2021.

#12. The overall prize pool for the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive video game is more than $15 million.

The total prize pool for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive video gaming was $17.26 million In 2016.

In 2017, this figure grew to $19.26 million. In 2018, it reached a high of $22.65 million.

The total prize pool for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Esports gaming in 2019 was $21.77 million, which is still more than the $20 million threshold.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a substantial drop of $5.92 million in total prize money in 2020 ($15.58 million).

Esports Tournaments Statistics

#13. In 2023, annual Esports prize pools are estimated to exceed $500 million.

The total prize fund for Esports in 2017 was $115.51 Million. It grew to $ 159.34 Million in 2018.

In 2019, it was predicted that by 2023, total global Esports prize pools would reach $543.69 Million.

#14. The most significant prize pool in an Esports tournament was more than $40 million.

The International has dominated the largest Esports competition prize pool. The annual tournament has been responsible for five of the most successful Esports prize pools to date.

The International resumed the game in 2021 with a record-breaking $40.02 million prize fund after being canceled in 2020.

The prize fund for International 2019 was $34.33 million. This came after YOY increased in 2015.

The prize pool for the International 2015 was $18.43 million, $3.14 million greater than the prize pool for the Fortnite World Cup 2019-Solo ($15.29 million).

With a total prize pool of $15.1 million, the Fortnite World Cup Finals 2019 – Duo has rounded out the top 8 Esports tournament prize pools.

#15. Over 6 million people watched the most viewed Esports competition.

There are 4,270,270 active teams playing E-sports games by Mobile Legends: Bang Bang

LOL (League of Legends) World Championships are the second and third most popular Esports tournaments with 2,297,919 viewers in 2023.

The peak viewership for the 2019 League of Legends World Championships was 3.99 million. At the same time, 3.88 million people tuned in to see the 2020 LOL World Championships.

Globally in 2023, more than 540 million viewers are currently watching various E-sports events and by the end of 2025, it is expected to be 640.8 million.

Esports Organizations Statistics

#16. Forbes has listed the top-earning Esports organizations that earned more than $100 million.

In 2023, Team Spirit was the highest-earning Esports organization, bringing in around $540 million in revenue, which has increased from last year.

Other top teams valuation of e-sports in 2023 are followed by Team Liquid $418 million (42%), Gaimin Gladiators ($309 million), G2 E-sports (274 million), FaZe Clan ($240 million), Vitality ($225 million), Talon E-sports ($205),  Evil Geniuses ($190 million), Team BDS ($165 million), and team SoloMid ($148 million).

#17. The combined value of the top four Esports organizations is more than $250 million.

TSM is the most valued Esports organization, according to a Forbes analysis from 2020, with an anticipated value of $410 million.

In addition, Cloud9 was second on the list of most valuable Esports companies with a value of $350 million.

top 10 most valuable esports organizations

The complete list of the top 10 most valuable Esports organizations is as follows:

#18. Team Liquid has earned over $35 million as a professional Esports group.

Team Liquid is currently the highest-earning Esports player with $38.7 Million in prize money as of March 2022. OG has a $35.7 Million total in Esports prize money.

16 organizations have been awarded more than $10 million in Esports prizes money.

Another 20 winners have earned more than $5 million.

Esports Players Statistics

#19. The top female Esports player has made over $440,00

Sasha “Scarlett” Hostyn, popularly known by her username Scarlett, is the highest-earning female Esports participant as of May 2023, earning $445,831 – around 18 times less than the highest-paid male Esports participant.

3 female Esports participants have currently won sums over $100,000.

In addition, 148 female Esports participants have won more than $10,000.

#20. The top Esports participants have won more than $7 million.

Johan Sundstein, popularly known as Johan Sundstein”N0tail”, is the highest-earning Esports player as of 14 March 2023. To date, he has earned a total of $7.20 million.

Six Esports players have now won more than $5 million. A total of 118 players have earned more than $1 million.

Esports Viewer Statistics

#21. In the Philippines, Nearly half of internet users watch live video game streams.

By the end of 2025, the number of live-streaming audiences in e-sports is expected to grow by 1,412.6 million people

As of 2023, the Philippines with 49% of internet users are streaming video game live broadcasts on e-sports, Indonesia ranked second on the list with 40%, followed by India (39%), China (38%), Thailand (37%), Vietnam (34%), Malaysia (32%), Turkey (31%), Taiwan (31%), and UAE (29%).

With 29% of internet users in the country streaming live video games, Mexico is the highest-ranking non-Asian country.

This statistic is comparable to the global average.

Brazil had 24% of the highest number of internet users who watched live games in South America. In addition, the largest share in Europe came from Romania with nearly 23%.

Egypt and South Africa are tied for highest-ranked in Africa.

The US had a relatively low 13% internet viewership who watched live-streamed video games.

#22. The Asia Pacific area accounts for more than half of all Esports views.

Estimates suggest that 57% of Esports views come from the Asia Pacific region, which is 41% higher than any other region.

Around 16% of all views are from Europe. While only 12% of views come from North America.
The remaining 15% is made up of the rest of the globe.

#23. According to VentureBeat, there are around 234 million Esports fans.

There were more than 200 million estimated Esports fans in 2020. A further 200.8 million viewers occasionally watch Esports.

These numbers increased to 234 million Esports fans in 2021. And a further 240 million viewers occasionally watch Esports.

By the end of 2024, Esports fans is going to be 285.7 million People. An additional 291.6 million people are occasional viewers.

Esports United States Viewers Statistics

#24. By 2023, the number of people watching Esports in the United States will exceed 45 million.

Esports viewership in the United States has increased year-over-year since 2020. In 2022, this figure jumped to 35 million.

The US Esports viewing audience for this year is expected to reach 39.2 million. This number will likely rise to 46.2 Million by 2023.

#25. Males are three times more likely to be Esports enthusiasts than females.

30% of male respondents in the United States claim some interest in Esports.

Only 11% of US female respondents say they are interested in Esports.

In the United States, 15% of male respondents have never heard of Esports, 10% less than 1 in 4 female US respondents.

#26. By 2023, one out of every seven internet users in the United States will be watching Esports.

In 2018, 9.2% of US internet users watched Esports. This percentage grew YOY and reached 13.4% by 2021.

Esports are expected to be viewed by approximately 15.5% of US internet users by 2023.

#27. 4 out of 5 Americans have never heard of Esports, or are not interested in it.

Despite their massive appeal in most of Asia, Esports remains a fringe interest in the United States.

59% of US respondents said they weren’t a “fan of Esports” as of April 2021. Another 20% of people claim to have never heard of Esports.

A total of 20% of respondents claimed to be Esports fans, with 13% identifying as “casual fans.” Another 7% identified themselves as “dedicated fans.”

Conclusion

Esports Statistics: This is all about our statistics and data from the Esports industry.

Esports is clearly a fast-growing sector in many parts of the world. However, in terms of both interest and viewership figures, the United States continues to lag behind Asia.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the Esports industry. However, it looks set to continue its upward trend in the coming years.

Barry Elad
Barry Elad

Barry is a lover of everything technology. Figuring out how the software works and creating content to shed more light on the value it offers users is his favorite pastime. When not evaluating apps or programs, he's busy trying out new healthy recipes, doing yoga, meditating, or taking nature walks with his little one.

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